Blow and Go

I'm 19 months into my journey! I decided to treat myself to one of the...or should I say THE best natural hair stylist in DC, the lovely Amanda of Bang Salon! She bangs...ok I had to do it!

I hadn't had my hair did since thanksgiving for my first end trim and since then winter and color have hit my hair. But I was surprised that I had virtually no damage! She just trimmed maybe 1/2 inch and blew it out and gave me the most awesomest flat iron ever. No going over pieces multiple times. This sister is bad!

My hair has so much body and movement. I'm so interested in seeing how long it lasts. I sweat so much in my head, but I'm going to try and maintain it without putting any additional heat.

Below are my photos. I'm so freaking proud of my growth!

Two strand twist out success

So I think I've finally mastered the two strand twist out! Finally only 18 months into the journey, lol.

I've been doing them on wet hair. I use herbal essences hello hydration mixed with castor oil and coconut oil. It my own made up leave in and works well to define my twist out.

The secret is... The blow dryer! I've finally figured out how to "stretch" it once I in twist it. This gives it great fullness and body. I'm so proud of this hair!

My 18 month check in...

I've been a horrible blogger and have so much to catch up on. I died my hair a reddish color and been having fun with it.

I recently tried a flexi set with 1/2 inch rollers. It was awesome the first day but the next day it got tragic. I left it in for about three days, but my wash was when it got bad! I lost so much hair and it was crazy tangled!

My hair hasnt been shedding much since I do my weekly castor oil and queen Helene conditioning. I am back to just chilling and putting my poofs back in. No more wet sets.

I'm happy for the growth I have. The front is finally gaining momentum, lol. It is starting to come around and look really full in two strand twist outs.

New Year New Color

So...I get bored and I start feeling like I've had the same hairdo forever. This prompted me to switch my style up. I colored it!

I did a lot of research which led me to basically do it my own way. I used dark and lovely #379. It was light enough with no booster which is good because I didn't want the extra damage.

It has been about 2 weeks and no damage as far as I can see! No extra breaking or dryness. Just new hair!

I've been DP with my queen Helene once a week and using castor out to seal. I'm still mostly wearing only poofs and using co wash and conditioner only to style.

I'm pumped and excited about the new look. Below is a photo montage of my new hair and my most recent trip home!

My Hairy Moments

Being that one of the main purposes of this blog was to follow my hair's moments, I feel I should recap where I'd been and where I am up to this point. Here is a photo montage of my hair journey which started a little before this blog...

Last Perm Circa 2009

Shaved it all off 2010

3 Months Into My Natural Hair Journey Nov -2010

4 Months Into Journey - December 2010

 5 Months into Journey Random Braids - January 2011

6 Months In Wash and Go - February 2011

6 Months Again - Late February 2011

 

9 Months In - May 2011

9 Months In - May 2011

10 Months In - June 2011

11 Months In - July 2011

1 Year Down! - August 2011

14 Months In - October 2011

 

14 Months In - October 2011

15 Months In - November 2011

16 Months In (My first straightening at a salon!) - December 2011

17 Months In (My first ponytail/bun so geeked) - Jan 2012

Let's Get Straight!

So its T minus 20 minutes and I'm on my way to the hair dresser to get my hair straightened (blown out and flat iron) and trimmed for the first time since starting this journey. Aside from my quick little home projects that were #fails.

It has been almost 15 months into my journey and I'm quite excited to see how starting off with a bald head to now will go. I'm so nervous and my sphinture is tight...inappropriate I know.

I can't wait to post pictures of my before and after shots. It should be interesting. I really can't wait to just run my fingers through my hair for a couple of days. Its been raining here so hopefully it doesn't ruin it too.

Ahhhhh, if i could scream outloud I would but I won't but I want to...

Scared Straight

So, a couple of weeks ago I did this...



I straightened the fro! This is me in the city outside of work. I wore a hat most of the time I had it straight because I didn't love the thinness of my hair. I felt naked without my naps! I liked the look with the hat though and it worked for a couple of days.

I straightened it not because I wanted to, but because I needed to get my ends clipped. I went to Salon Revive in DC and they were ok. I went to them because they got good yelps but I felt my service was a little rushed. I've only been to the hairdresser in DC a few times and every time I've had to go home and do something more to it.

Anyhoo, I'm glad I went. My curls look great since I did it and I feel its so much easier to detangle! I will try to scare myself to straighten at least 3 or 4 times a year.

We'll see!

The Great Shed of 2011

Shedding...ugh#@$#@!

For the past maybe 4 months, after every wash and detangle and shingling session I have about this much hair come out.

                                                Shed Hair for One Month (divided by weeks)

                                                Source: naturallycurly.com

My hair is not this long, but this is about how much came out after each wash. Not to mention, this x2 because I wash my hair about 2 times a week. I tried to find info on #naturalhairshedding, but it seems it is not talked about a lot. I'm not sure if other naturals don't experience as much shedding as I have, but dude, it was becoming crazy and really led me to think I just needed to chop again and start from the beginning.

I did not...I took some time to realize what may be causing the shedding. I was nearing my year, so I said "maybe its just that my hair is getting a little longer and not really shedding". Ha. No. That was not true, it was shedding, breaking, whatever you want to call it. Ok, so the first like talk about the differences in the terms.

Shedding: Shedding refers to old hairs coming out to make room for new hairs.
Breaking: Breaking refers to hair (new or old) breaking, not at the root, but mid shaft.

I felt I was experiencing both of this things at a rapid rate. My front was starting to look like a receding hair line.

You see these thin edges? I'm pretty sure my hair is receding right! Look at this crap!
So, what did I do... I changed up my routine. My previous routine consisted of shampooing with a light shampoo, conditioning, deep conditioning, detangle, seal, and wash and go.

This week, I tried a new routine, and I have to say, I am almost in tears while writing this...my hair did not shed almost at all, except for a few, very few strands here and there. I typically have to wash my hands mid shingle because its covered in my curls. This time, I got through the whole freaking head!!!

My routine...well for the past month or two, I've totally taken shampoo out of my process. No shampoo at all. I thought maybe the shampoo was causing my hair to get more dry and tangled, and caused me to loose more hair during the detangle process. I now only cowash with Giovanni Volumness conditioner I got from Marshalls (random find for a huge bottle for 10 bucks!) I still had shed after this, a little less, but still a whole lot in my opinion.

This Sunday, instead of my typical deep condition, detangle and shingle routine, I didn't shingle. I wanted to give my hair a break from the gel. I felt maybe the breakage/shed was coming from the products drying my hair out. I did a twistout on wet hair, just sealing with coconut oil and moisturizing with Knot Today. I wore the twist out for about 3 days.

On my second wash day, Wednesday, I bought a new conditioner...(cue the music). This product...Profectiv Mega Growth Deep Strengthening Growth Conditioner.

 I got this from CVS on my lunch break on a whim for like $6. I had not heard anything about it, and it was with the "permed" hair stuff, but the ingredients (lots of proteins, mineral oils, etc) sound like a recipe I needed. All the light, natural, organicy stuff is good. But my hair was dying for something with some meat on it.

I cowashed, and slathered this stuff on. Let me tell you...it was like my soul opened up and cried. It felt so smooth going on...so thick. I had been using the Giovanni Smooth as Silk Deep Conditioner, and it was okay, but WAY to light for my mane. I applied this like you would apply a perm, section by section and coated all my curls root to tip. It says you only need it for like 10 or 20 min but I needed some serious repair! I put on my plastic cap and went to sleep in it.

In the am I washed out and OMG...I could feel it. The strength, the power! My curls felt like they had the weight they needed to stand up to the days challenge, lol. I was impressed. I decided to try it out with a shingling session to see if it could hold up and guys guess what! It did! I didn't even use the tangle teezer to detangle! Just my fingers, and if you have heard anything about how my detangle sessions go, you know, this is serious! No comb to predetangle either, just my hands, and my eco and I finished my whole head in about 15min! I am giving this conditioner all the glory for helping me!

I'm trying not to get too geeked, but I think the Great Shed of 2011 has been combated with this Mega Growth product. I'm not interested so much in the growth as the retention and I think, this product is my friend!

Happy Anniversary!

I made it! One year natural! Wow...who would've thought I could go from this cut

To this fade...

 

To this TWA

To this wash and go

To even henna

And an afro poof!

To this mane!!!

My lengths currently are: 6 inches on the sides, 5.5 inches in the back, 6 inches in the front (which is quite shocking since this is my problem area, see the second picture), and about 5 inches in the middle.

When I started it was a bald head. Which is what I try to remember when I look at other people's videos of their one year anniversary and their hair looks so much longer than mine. A lot of people are starting with 6 months plus of growth so at their "year" they are really 1.5 years. I try to keep their transition time in mind, but its frustrating because looking in the mirror I feel like my hair looks the same.

Shrinkage is a motha. I'd say I have about 75% shrinkage so I seems I've had this same curly fro for a year. I've tried to stretch and blow out but those were all #fails. I'm a bottom line wash and go girl (for now). No twisting, braiding, braid outs, etc. Just wash, shingle, and go. Or wash, doodle and go. Weird things happen when I attempt anything other than this.

What have I learned in this year? Uh, I'm random. I never know how I feel or what I want to do with my hair. I want a high bun so bad, anything less than that is tough. I feel like I am never going to make it there. Although, I hope I do.

My wish for year 2...I want to eventually get my hair in some cute protective styles, I want to go to a national hair conference, and I want to rock an amazing blow out.

Leggo

11 Months Down...

I don't really know my exact "day" I decided to grow my hair because I was rocking a fade when I just said, I'm not going to the barbershop anymore. But I like to say it was around DH bday. Somewhere in there.

Anyhoo, she, Sasha Thumper, is 11 months. And I decided it was time to clip some ends. I have been having a lot of shedding (blog to come...still working on the cure) but clipping my ends will hopefully help it.

I cut about this much...

This is my post fro pix. I so need to stop taking pictures on my whack BB, but I realize that I never feel like going to get the camera once I start a process.

 My first afro pony! I was soooo proud of this moment!

 So proud I went straight Thelma from good times and added a scarf around it!

 

I didn't realize my hair could do this! I have not worn this style out, but plan on it soon. I realized my hair is growing. Its so hard when you see it everyday and when you take into account the shrinkage factor, but it can do a puff now! I went from 0 inches to about 6 inches (give or take) in 11 months. This is about 1/2 inch of growth a month and retention, don't forget about retention.

I can't wait til my natural anniversary next month. I'm throwing my hair a party!

Frugality is my friend

So...when I first started my journey I was highly obsessed with the blogs, youtubes, articles on natural hair. Its an overload hearing and seeing so many techniques, products. You want to buy and try them all. That is...until you see the sticker. Many of the "favorites" in the natural hair community are upwards of $50 per container!

Now, I of course think I deserve the best, however, $50 for a hair product is not necessarily where I want to spend my dough. I made a pledge that I would not spend more than $20 for a product and I would attempt to find uses for the products I already had.

Of course in the beginning I tried the many conditioners, shampoos, gels, etc. raved about on many websites. But I soon learned...in the first maybe...year (I'm at 10 months now) of the hair game, my hair reacted to the $4 gel equally if not better than the $10 gel. So, why not make my dolla holla.

My favorite products right now are all under the $20 price tag and I wouldn't change them for the world.

9 Month Check In

So my fro is almost 10 months and this is a pix from 9.5 months! She looks amazing I know.

I blew it out the other night and wore it to work like this. I was a little nervous like I said in a previous post. But I rocked it well. At night to preserve it and to make sure it didn't shrink up on my, I did this...

7 Months Natural

7 months...not much has changed from 6 months. I don't really feel like my hair has grown that much from the past month. Below is my hair with no product in it.

I want to talk about my regimen. When I first started the journey I was totally obsessed with the regimen, what to buy, what to do, ya, yah, yah. Now, I'm hitting a natural hair lazy phase and really don't experiment much. I have/had my staples and I go with that.

What I have learned about my hair in the past 7 months is quite interesting. Below are the top 3 things I've learned so far. This will be an ongoing list to document what I've learned along the way...

1. My hair is way less kinkier than I thought it would be. I thought it would be pretty nappy, but its actually semi-fine and fuzzy and less kinky. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I think when its kinky you have more variability in the styles you can do. Mine, really just curls up. No twist outs, braid outs, just gel...

2. The more I manipulate my hair the straighter it gets. I wanted this big blow out afro, or these super cute twist outs...but right now thats not my hair reality. I tried 2 strand twist and my hair became straight. I have a few pix of it you can see, but not super wavy like other naturals. If I put a blow dryer to it at all, it becomes straight. Shocking. So, when, if I want to wear it straight, I know I really wouldn't need much heat because my natural texture is straight on its own.

3. My hair is fickle. I have changed gels like 3 times this month. And still don't know what to do. I know the style for me is shingled/smoothed curls. However, how to achieve that is to go through each section with gel and this causes me to have to touch my hair more. The more I touch my hair the more comes off in my hands and the more I'm totally blown. I feel like its breaks more the more I shingle. So I try to wear the style for a few days, but depending on the product I use, it is flake city in the morning. I can do these awesome shingling sessions only to wake up to snow white in the morning. Total blower! So...what product to use? Not sure. I'm guessing some type of butter may be the key for me, but I haven't experiemented much with them. Hopefully as my hair gets longer I will take more chances on products and look into some butters.

My regimen now is:
1 shampoo wash per week with Suave Naturals clarifying shampoo
1-2 co-washes per week (dependent on product build up and flake factor) with Aussie Moist or Suave Naturals
Seal with coconut oil, and occasional mix of grapeseed, rosemary, aloe, and tea tree
Styler - it was ecostyler gel, then tresemme gel, tresemme moose, and now back to IC Fantasia gel
Shingle and finger combing product through
Bonnet at night
No rewetting with spray bottle. Oil in am if needed

Lets see how this changes as the month goes on...